The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head having a head face which extends in a first direction in which the magnetic head and a recording medium are relatively movable with respect to each other, and in a second direction transverse to the first direction, and comprising a first flux guide, a second flux guide and a transducing gap bounded by the two flux guides, in which method the magnetic head is built up in layers, in which consecutively a first magnetically permeable layer for forming the first flux guide, a non-magnetic gap layer for forming the transducing gap and a second magnetically permeable layer for forming the second flux guide are provided.
Such a method is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,023. The known method is intended for manufacturing thin-film magnetic heads which are suitable for scanning track widths in the sub-micron area. These magnetic heads have the specific feature that they have stepped pole-top configurations. The known method comprises the deposition of a seed layer on which an insulation layer of a non-magnetic material is deposited, which insulation layer is etched via a mask until the seed layer is exposed, whereafter a ferromagnetic bottom layer, which is thinner than the insulation layer, is electrodeposited on the seed layer between the remaining parts of the insulation layer. Subsequently, a gap layer is deposited on the entire surface, whereafter a ferromagnetic top layer is electrodeposited, whereafter both ferromagnetic layers overlap each other.
A part of said bottom layer is removed by means of etching, with the top layer functioning as a mask, so that a stepped lower pole top is obtained. Due to a difference in height between the insulation layer and the bottom layer, the top layer constitutes a stepped upper pole top. The stepped pole tops obtained determine the gap width of the magnetic head. However, a gap which is not completely planar and has an inaccurately defined gap width is obtained with conventional deposition techniques. The gap width accuracy is also determined by the accuracy with which etching is performed or can be performed. In practice, however, a high etching accuracy is difficult to realize.